Gallery | Formats | Fronkie L'Heureux

Well, it’s the 13th day of 2020, 13 being an auspicious number for transformation, and it’s time to check in! Especially since the last time I checked in I was leaving Loose Screw Tattoo, helpfully transitioned by some of the most professional people I’ve ever had the honor of working with. I was bouncing from shop to shop this summer while my friend… and now I can say it… Christian Buckingham was opening his shop. Yes, THE Christian Buckingham from several seasons of Ink Master. Renowned for his black and grey and on-screen antics. He and I formed a friendship at LST and found that we were quite like-minded on a lot of things.

In December of 2019, I graduated from the Karuna 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training, but I still have quite a few hours to fill. It wasn’t my intent going into it to end up teaching classes- except maybe leading groups of tattooers in a gentle morning practice at conventions. I did it to enrich my knowledge and understanding of something I’ve been doing on my own for years. Something that has sustained me through chronic pain and fatigue, that I want to share with others. I trust that my deepened understanding will enrich my art and all that time and energy will come back to me if I can share what I have learned, in whatever way that happens.

If I could sum up the benefit this experience has had on my life, I would say that it brought me through a dark night of the soul, I have had some really low moments as I shed layers of trauma, but in those moments I got in touch with a deeper peace. There is a stillness that resides beneath my reactions, my feelings, my thoughts, my need to do something in reaction to the universe around me. And from this place of peace I have learned of my own power to influence the world around me as I see fit. And I’ve seen that when I come from a place of peace and love and joy, I create a more habitable environment for myself and the people I care about.

Tarot card I designed for my research project for yoga teacher training

I feel the shifts happening in our collective consciousness. So many of us are waking up to the inner guru and shedding all that no longer serves. Growth can be painful, but it doesn’t have to be. That which we resist, persists. We all make mistakes every day! But when you see it, you have to know it doesn’t affect your worth. Learn how to be better, and move forward. And if you keep stumbling over the same lesson, you’ve got to see things differently before you’ll ever move forward.

I’m in a place professionally, emotionally, and artistically that I feel really empowered in, and with reasonably-paced growth I could maintain this place for the long term happily. I hope this for you too, dear reader. And if it isn’t that way for you, ask yourself what is stopping you from finding that goldilocks zone that makes space for future growth but keeps you content in the moment? Start by looking inward, asking yourself questions about yourself and how much of your discontent lies in your own reaction and how much of it is in allowing others to cross your boundaries? Steal your time? Steal your energy? Your joy? I invite you to create your own world from the inside out.

And then if you feel so inclined, you could share that journey with me. I can give you a tarot reading for some guidance, or if you have just come through some kind of transformation and want to get a tattoo to symbolize that shift, I’m here for it. I’m also here just to make pretty pictures. I’m here to help.

Namasté.

Tattoos

Gallery | Posted on January 23, 2015 by fronkielheureux

Some thumbnails require a click to view captions. All require a click for a closer look 😉

This sleeve was done in record time. Chipping away at it in 2-3 hour sessions over the course of a couple months, my client was only in town for an unknown period of time, working crazy hours as an independent contractor for a local project. The day he left for home, just a few days after our final session, he came in to allow me to take several photos of the completed work.

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Eventually most tattoo collectors get a piece like this which combines two seemingly opposite ideas to represent how they’ve come to terms with tragedy as a part of life, or conversely how they are still befuddled by how even the most beautiful and innocent parts of this life can be ruined by death or corruption. All things give way to their opposite, and all things exist within their opposites.

Done at the DC tattoo convention 2018, this came from a sketch I had done specifically for walk-ups!

I created this image in the Fall of 2017, and a beautiful lady chose her from my walk-up offerings at the DC convention 2018

I was so pleased to get to do this sketch I had available for walk-ups at the DC 2018 convention.

This tattoo was inspired by a sketch my client found on Pinterest. It was a pencil sketch with no color, and I drew this piece instead. She had never gotten a tattoo this big or this detailed before, and though it was a challenge for her to sit still so long (ah, the urgency of youth!) we made it through together. We’re both ecstatic with the results!

This young man asked for a grim reaper looking up at him, ready to decapitate him.

This guy wanted a pinup of his wife with a Shelby gt

This piece was a fun way to mix black and grey portrait-style shading with neo-traditional/illustrational line work. It represents my client’s relationship with her father.

One of my favorite things about Maryland is the state flag. This client, whom I affectionately call Sparky, was squeezed into my schedule so I could do this before his deployment!

Thanks for looking!